When Worlds Collide
by Ludy Cress
Summary: HP/DBZ Crossover. A few years after leaving Hogwarts, Hermione is employed at the Ministry of Magic. Through her work, she encounters a world she does not entirely understand, and, banding up with Harry and Ron, she attempts to uncover its secrets.
1. Chapter 1

"When Worlds Collide"

Author's Note: This story is kind of just a weird idea I had when I was working on my other HP/DBZ fic. I don't really know where it will go, but I thought it might amuse some of you.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

* * *

"Excuse me! Sorry!"

She had her eyes set on the red telephone box across the street as she made her way through an unusually large crowd of muggles. Ignoring their stares, she clung a little more tightly on the robes in her arms as she came to the corner.

It wasn't that she particularly _wanted_ to live amongst muggles – it's just that the starting job in the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures didn't exactly pay very well, and wizard housing wasn't exactly cheap. There was also no rule she could find against bewitching muggle landlords to lower one's rent either.

Since she was promoted to the Office of Magical Law Enforcement, her salary had become considerably higher, but also, with a nasty break up with her boyfriend the year before, she hadn't felt particularly motivated to search for a new place to live.

She came to the corner and glanced quickly to the right. Seeing nothing, she began a fast stride across the way.

_BEEEEEPPP!_

Three quarters of the way across, she was startled into looking up to her left. Her eyes widened – there was a lorry less than ten feet away from her, and it had no intention of braking.

With the knowledge that there was no time to pull out her wand to save herself, she squeezed her eyes tightly shut and waited for the impact.

The impact came, though it didn't hurt like she expected it to. She assumed the reason for this – and the also the reason that she was still conscious – was that she was actually dead. Death had taken her. She was slightly puzzled though, as to why she felt so comfortable in Death's arms, and why Death himself happened to be so warm. Regardless, she latched herself on to him, not wanting to give up the sense of security she felt emanating from him, as odd as it was.

She felt herself being lowered to the ground, so she clung tighter, still refusing to open her eyes. Only when she heard a voice begin to speak to her did she slowly open them.

"Hey, it's alright. You can let go."

She looked around – she was still in London.

"I'm…I'm not dead?" she looked up at the man who had apparently saved her. The look of concern in his dark eyes only seemed to highlight his handsomeness.

"You very nearly were, dear!" an elderly woman spoke up from the crowd beginning to form around them. "If it hadn't been for that young man running out into the street to save you!"

"By George, I've never seen anyone move so fast in my life!" a large, mustached man spoke up. "Are you going to be in the next Olympics, my boy?"

"No sir," he replied, blushing, then turning back to her, he asked, "Are you able to walk? Let me help you up."

She gave a slight nod and took his hand. As he pulled her up, the crowd began to clear, judging that there was not much else to see. She wobbled slightly, and he put his other hand on her shoulder to steady her.

"Thank you. Really," she managed to say, looking up at him sincerely. "I mean, I really don't know how I can ever repay you – you saved my life!"

He smiled shyly.

"Just don't worry about it. Where were you headed to in such a hurry anyway?"

"Just to that telephone box over there," she replied rather embarrassedly, noticing that he was slightly puzzled at her anxiety over it. He, being a muggle, wouldn't have understood that her timeliness in the workplace depended on getting to the booth by a certain time, so she made up an excuse as to why she needed to go there. "My phone at home is broken, and I was expecting an important call on it. I guess I must have missed it though."

_It isn't entirely a lie, I guess. My phone is broken because I don't even have a phone. _

He looked concerned again.

"Maybe you should try calling them back. Here, let me walk you over there."

She nodded and let him lead her to the telephone box.

"Thank you again," she said after opening the door.

"Good luck with the call," he replied with a nod.

She watched as he turned around and began a trek down the street. Turning back to the telephone, she quickly dialed 62442. Upon hearing the response on the other end, she quickly stated:

"Hermione Granger, Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

"Thank you Miss Granger," the phone replied. "You are now being transported to the Ministry of Magic."

She took the pass that was issued, then feeling herself begin to descend into the ministry, she pulled her robes on over her clothes. Upon arrival, she ran to the nearest lift as fast as her shaken up legs would take her, and took it to the second level. Taking a deep breath before stepping off the lift, she held her chin up and walked as calmly as possible into the Improper Use of Magic Office.

"Well, well, Miss Granger," her supervisor, Mafalda Hopkirk drawled, peering over her glasses at the young woman. "_Late_, are we?"

Since the war ended, Mafalda had been promoted to head of the division, and she had developed a bit of a superiority complex about it. Not only that, she held a personal grudge against Hermione for her short stint of impersonating her with polyjuice potion in order to break into the Ministry.

"If we could apparate into the Ministry, I'd have been on time," Hermione returned. "However, I ran into some trouble with a muggle lorry."

"A lorry?" Mafalda looked confused. "What, by Merlin's beard, is that?"

"Don't worry about it," Hermione called back to her, stepping into her own office.

A few minutes later, Mafalda followed her in with a stack of parchments floating next to her.

"We've recently found a new way to track unregistered witches and wizards, and you, my dear, get to do a little bit of field work for it."

Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but shut it when Mafalda sent her a glare and kept talking.

"Basically we're now able to detect beings with magical capabilities who have thus yet remained unaffiliated with the wizarding community. Here's the list of names we've recovered so far. Most of them are located in remote regions or nations that don't have a competent ministry, or even a ministry at all."

She flicked her wand and the stack of parchments plopped itself onto Hermione's desk.

"What exactly do you want me to do though?" Hermione asked, gaping.

"Go affiliate them! All magic users must register as a matter of safety!" Mafalda snapped, as if it had been completely obvious. "Either convince them to pay a visit to this Ministry, or their respective nation's ministry in order to register, or if they refuse to do so, question them about important topics so that we can create a file for them. Do as many as you can during your working hours. The process will continue each day until the list is exhausted."

Hermione suppressed a groan as Mafalda stalked out. Glancing at the stack though, she was relieved to see that there was only one name per parchment, and that she would just have to try her best to fill in what was missing.

Pulling herself up from her desk (which she had barely sat at anyway), she traced her own steps back from the office to the Atrium of the Ministry, this time opting to take the Floo Network to the destination nearest the first recipient on her list.

She read the name and location: Dulcinea Ezili, Haiti. _Just my luck_.

* * *

Ten minutes after five, Hermione dragged herself back into her office to make sure she wasn't leaving anything behind before she went home for the day.

"Where were you at lunch?" a voice behind her suddenly spoke up. "I came in to see if you wanted to grab a bite with me, but you were gone!"

"Harry!" Hermione turned around, pleasantly surprised. It was definitely a perk to have one of her best friends working in the Auror's Office just down the hall.

"Oh, I was only out dodging voodoo hexes while trying to find out if some girl was a registered animagus, or if she had her apparation license," she rolled her eyes.

Harry raised his eyebrows.

"Care to elaborate while we pick up some dinner?"

She grinned and followed him out of the Ministry.

* * *

"So she threw all this on you because you were late?" Harry unceremoniously shoved a chip in his mouth.

"Well, I think she was planning to throw it all on me regardless," Hermione explained. "But the fact that I was late made it worse."

"Why were you late anyway," Harry swallowed. "That's not really like you…"

Hermione sighed and explained the events of the morning.

"And…and I just can't stop thinking about that guy! About how he ran out and saved my life, about how he was _able_ to run out in the street and grab me when I didn't even have time to pull out my wand! He was incredible Harry – I don't know how he did it!"

She looked up to see a knowing smile on Harry's face.

"What!" she snapped, pretending to be offended.

"Let's just avoid pulling a stunt like Merope Gaunt did, now shall we?"

She gasped and crossed her arms at the comment.

"Sometimes I wonder why we're even still friends," she muttered, before bursting into laughter with him.

* * *

End Note: Eh, slow start. There will be more of a plot with the next chapter. By the way, new chapters for my other stories should be going up sometime this week.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note: Whee...

Disclaimer: Ce n'est pas a moi.

* * *

A few days later at the Ministry, Hermione plopped herself down at her desk, albeit on time, and stared hard at the stack of names sitting in front of her.

She picked up the top one and stared vaguely at the name. As she read information already known about the magic user, her eyes began to widen – there was an ad attached to the page which was apparently placed there to provide information about the 'business' this unregistered witch had founded:

_Uranai Baba's Fortunetelling Franchise! 10,000,000,000 zeni for the answer to __any__ question! Or, exempt the cost by defeating five warriors! _

There was an address at the bottom of the page.

Hermione raised an eyebrow, then slowly pulled herself from her chair.

* * *

An hour later, she had located Uranai Baba's castle and had apparated there. She glanced around the premises slightly nervously – it was quite empty.

She walked through the nearest doorway, trying to adjust her eyes to the dim lighting.

"Miss Hermione Granger," a voice behind her cackled amusedly. "I knew I would be receiving some interesting company today."

Hermione whipped around at the sound and was confronted with a witch even tinier than Professor Flitwick.

"You must be Uranai Baba," Hermione replied, swallowing a little more loudly than she intended. "I've been sent here by the Ministry of Magic – you've been singled out as an unregistered magic user."

"Is that so?" Baba smirked, further straining Hermione's nerves. "In all 500 years of my life, I've never before been required to _register._"

Hermione gawped rather impolitely.

_500 years!? She's almost as old as Nicolas Flamel was! But he was the only one who used the Philosopher's Stone…_

"I – I know, ma'am, and I'm very sorry to have to require you to do so," Hermione finally regained some composure. "But there have been recent issues in the wizarding community which have driven us to take extreme safety precautions, this being one of them."

"I can assure you, I'm very safe on my own."

Hermione didn't believe a word she said, but nodded anyway.

"I don't doubt it ma'am, but regardless I must ask you to accompany me back to the Ministry to register."

"Will it take long?" Baba rolled her eyes and sighed.

"I don't think it will take more than a few hours, but I wouldn't be able to tell you for sure."

"Alright, alright," Baba grumbled, consenting. "I'll go."

"Excellent," Hermione replied with a grin, before placing a hand on the tiny woman's shoulder and apparating back to a location near the Ministry.

* * *

After taking the call box route to get into the wizarding hub, Hermione led Baba to the visitor's line to obtain her registration forms.

She explained to Baba what she needed to do, and was about to leave when she heard the small witch call out to her.

"And where do you think you're going?"

Hermione returned a resentful smile.

"As much as it pains me to have to leave you to the workings of the Ministry, I _do_ have a job to do."

"Well consider keeping me company part of your job then. I refuse to register unless I have someone keeping me company during this boring wait – and I'd prefer someone with an interesting future to the rest of these dull queuers."

She had said it rather loudly, earning her disdainful looks from the people around her.

Hermione pursed her lips in agitation, but gave in and took the place in line next to Baba.

"So I have a bright future, eh?" she crossed her arms rather annoyedly.

"Oh yes," Baba smirked again. "This will not be the only time we meet."

"And that makes it bright, does it?" Hermione couldn't decide whether that was a good or bad thing. Not wanting Baba to elaborate on it in case it was under unfavorable circumstances, she changed the subject, lowering her voice.

"So how did you manage to come across the Philosopher's Stone? I always thought it was well guarded."

"The what?"

Hermione turned and stared hard at the little woman.

"You know what I'm talking about – the stone used to procure the elixir of immortality."

"Shenlong gave me immortality; not some lousy rock," Baba snapped.

"…Shenlong?"

"You know what I'm talking about – the Dragon God," Baba mocked with a slight cackle.

Hermione raised an eyebrow. She was beginning to get the feeling that Baba was not completely right in the head.

"So…" she changed the subject again. "What have you been doing with your life all these years?"

"Surrendering myself to my greatest pleasures of course."

"Which are?"

"Money and fighting."

"Well your business idea makes a little more sense now," Hermione gave nod of disbelief, and was glad to see that they were finally at the front of the line.

They were handed a stack of forms, and Hermione subsequently led Baba to a small table to complete them.

Once finished, they returned the forms, and Baba was told to await confirmation of her registration. At this point, Hermione was finally able to take leave of the fortuneteller and return to her desk to check who was next on the list. As she turned to walk away, Baba's voice caught her attention.

"I have one last thing to tell you."

Hermione turned around; Baba was smirking again.

"You were recently almost hit by a lorry, were you not?"

"H-how did you…" Hermione could not contain her shock.

Baba cackled.

"Never you mind. I just wanted to let you know that you eventually will meet the young man who saved you again. Consider my reading of your future a small repayment for your tediously standing in line with me."

Hermione opened and closed her mouth several times, at a loss of whether she should be glad she would meet her savior again, or frightened that Baba had knowledge of the incident when she was sure that no one but Harry knew. When she could not think of anything sufficient to say in reply, she quickly turned around an stalked off, Baba's cackle still ringing in her ears.

* * *

"_Magical Law Enforcement Squad to the Atrium immediately!_"

Hermione looked up from her papers to listen to the resounding voice, and arched an eyebrow before returning to her work.

Ten minutes later, Harry ran in.

"Oh good, you're still here! You just missed the most amazing thing, but I can tell you, so don't worry!"

"Yes?" Hermione was getting rather tired of her schedule being bent for others.

"Well, I went with the Squad when they got called to the Atrium just a few minutes ago – they were called to arrest someone on charges of not only purposefully exposing magic to muggles, but exploiting muggles for fun.

"I went because we thought it might be one of those dark wizard, muggle-hater types. Turned out to be this tiny little witch, about ye high - "

He held his hand but a few feet from the ground to emphasize her shortness.

"And – Blimey, Hermione your eyes are as big as saucers! Do you know her?"

Hermione nodded.

"Her name's Uranai Baba. I just brought her in today for registration. She was very strange, but she didn't strike me as a muggle-hater…more like someone who would hate muggles and wizards equally."

"Hmm, well I guess we can never be too careful nowadays. But regardless, the amazing things occurred when the Squad tried to catch her. She kept jumping out of the way of all the spells – a real lithe little bugger! Would've never expected so much agility from someone who looked so old."

"Nor would I," Hermione gasped. "She told me she was 500 years old…"

It was Harry's turn to gape.

"What are they going to do with her?" Hermione asked.

"Well, since she resisted arrest as well, they're going to take her to Azkaban for a few days until the Wizengamot tries her. When they finally got hold of her, she started yelling about how they wouldn't be able to hold her long – that she has powerful connections. It was all a little unnerving."

Hermione glanced behind Harry, having heard some commotion outside her door.

"That'd be Mafalda," she rolled her eyes. "Listen, let's get dinner again after work, and I'll tell you the whole story of my encounter with Uranai Baba."

* * *

End note: Lawl.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three!

To StephanG and Knight25 for predicting my actions.

Disclaimer: Standard denial applies.

And, to PrideIsArrogance and anyone else seeking clarification from the previous reviews: Hermione did not meet Baba in London – she had to seek her out way in the middle of nowhere. Maybe I wasn't very clear about that? If I wasn't, I apologize. As for the other meeting which _was_ in London - that will be explained in either chapter four or five. You have a good point about the title: I chose it because wizard characters will be encountering other characters and elements from the DBZ world, and, though it really hasn't happened to large extent yet, DBZ characters will be encountering other characters and elements of the wizarding world. It does seem a little one-sided at this point though, and it actually might remain that way – I haven't decided yet if the DBZ characters are even going to be remotely interested in the wizarding world, but even if they are, although it's written in third person, it's mostly Hermione's take on everything. Perhaps "collide" is too strong a word though; a better title might have been "When a World is Encountered," but that sounds pretty stupid. It's probably better to just accept that I'm horrible at titling stories (look at the titles of my other stories for proof), and ignore the title entirely.

* * *

The next day at work, the Ministry was abuzz with anxiety. Hermione paid a sidelong glance to a witch trying to sell protective amulets before picking up a copy of the _Daily Prophet _in the Atrium. She stuck the paper under her arm and headed down to her office.

Plopping down in her chair, she unfolded the paper and gasped at the title:

_Escape from Azkaban!_

She skipped the picture and went straight to the article:

_Late last night, Azkaban was subjected to the first prison break since the defeat of the Dark Lord, and, surprisingly, the escapee was not a known Death Eater or wizard explicitly proven to be affiliated with Voldemort. The convict, a certain Uranai Baba, had just recently registered her use of magic at the Ministry, putting her under Ministry jurisdiction, when she was found to be guilty of exposing muggles to magic, and exploiting muggles with said magic for her own amusement. When being taken away from the Ministry by the Law Enforcement squad, several witnesses alleged that she swore Azkaban would not hold her long, and that she had powerful connections that would free her._

_Her vow was proven last night when a large hole was suddenly blown in the side of the prison on the exact floor Uranai Baba was being held._

"_Everything was quiet, 'cept for the occasional cackle from that little witch [Baba], but she'd been cacklin' all night, so it wasn't anything new," stated floor overseer Hector Piccadilly. "Then POW, all-a-the sudden the wall at the end of the hall was suddenly missing, and there was this bright light – it took my eyes a few seconds to see that it was a man stepping in from outside. Weird thing is, though, we were five levels up an' he didn't have no broom. Or anything. It was just him."_

_Several other overseers ran to the scene, having heard the explosion. They described the man as tall and fit, with bright turquoise eyes and golden hair, and a golden aura of light surrounding him._

"_We got to the floor and saw this guy, and knowing that he wasn't supposed to be there, we fired some spells," Pandarus Finch, another overseer, attested. "They all bounced off though, as if that glowing light surrounding him was some kind of shield. Blimey, he was frightening – just unearthly. He just walked silently down the hall as if he didn't even know we were firing spells at him. Then he just stopped in front of that little witch's cell. And all she says is, 'You're late.'"_

_Authorities say that Baba had no communication with anyone, other than making a scene in the Atrium of the Ministry, from the point of her arrest up to the point of her escape._

"_An' after she acknowledged him, he still didn't say nothing," Piccadilly stated. "He just stuck his hands 'tween the bars and pulled them apart, then completely out. I can't even do that with magic!"_

"_He stepped into the cell and picked the witch up," said Finch. "And then, he just stuck his hand out in front of him, and out comes this blast of light. He bloody went and made another gaping hole in the prison – with some kind of blast that came from his hand, not a wand. I don't even know __what__ he was."_

_The man was then said to have walked to the edge of the hole, jumped out, and __flown__ away from Azkaban. He was pursued shortly by security on Firebolts, but was able to out-fly them. Uranai Baba's whereabouts are still unknown, but if any information concerning her or her accomplice turns up, the Ministry should be notified immediately._

Hermione finally dared to look at the picture – it was of the back of the man. He was holding Baba in his left arm, who was making faces and cackling at the overseers behind them, and his right arm was extended in front of him, with the magical picture showing the blast from it taking out the wall. The bent bars lay on the ground behind them, and his head was turned just enough to show that his expression remained perfectly calm despite the blast he was firing and the spells being fired at him.

* * *

Hermione returned from her registration work early enough to spend her lunch break with Harry, and their conversation topic couldn't have been more obvious.

"I'm one of the aurors who's been assigned to the case," Harry explained. "Everyone seems to think that this Uranai Baba character is somehow tied to dark magic and the remaining Voldemort faction – I mean, there's a lot of parallels that've been worked out."

"Like?" Although Hermione found Baba to be extremely creepy, she somehow did not get the feeling that she was at all tied to dark magic. She had expressed this opinion to Harry, and though he agreed, evidence led him to remain undecided.

"First of all, muggle abuse - "

"That's questionable. She seemed to be very out of touch with the wizarding world before yesterday when I met her at her castle, yet she knew who I was. Given that, she probably knew that I was muggle-born as well, but she was not disdainful towards me because of it. In fact, she was partial to me."

"Okay, fine. But she alluded to 'powerful connections.' Whether or not she was referring to dark wizards, it still sounds really suspicious."

"I'll give you that one."

"She was able to get in touch with someone despite the mental blocks put on her. The Squad puts them on everyone they arrest."

"Creepy yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's dark magic. To me it only suggests a new kind of magic. It's a little fascinating actually, but in a frightening way."

"Okay, and what about the man who rescued her? He could block spells, channel magic without any sort of wand, and _fly._ Only Voldemort and Snape could fly."

"He's the most suspicious, I suppose. Whatever kind of magic he's using is obviously very powerful – if it made nothing of all the protective charms around Azkaban, it _has_ to be extremely powerful - "

"Hermione. He _out-flew_ a firebolt."

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows.

"This is all so overwhelming. In fact, it's frightening! There is quite possible a _very powerful_ magic using group that has kept itself secret from both muggles and wizards. Even with the Ministry's new way of detecting unregistered users that Mafalda was blathering about, they still have not come up with anything remotely like this guy. It would do wonders for our reputations within in the Ministry should we be the ones to figure it out."

Harry paused and frowned.

"I don't know about you Hermione, but I've been hearing a lot of 'Potter was good against the Dark Lord because he was destined for that battle, but what can he really do?'"

Hermione smiled sympathetically.

"Mafalda's explicitly told me that my skills were worth something to game-playing grade schoolers at Hogwarts, but that they're completely worthless in the serious Ministry environment."

"Well that settles it then," Harry straightened up. "We'll just have to solve this case in our old Hogwarts style. Just to prove them wrong."

"I'm tempted to say I disapprove just to reprise my Hogwarts-age self."

Harry laughed.

"I'll pay a visit to Ron after work then; we may be needing some extendable ears."

"I'd appreciate it if I didn't have to work too closely with him," Hermione frowned. "But I'll consent if only because the wheezes are so conveniently handy."

"Excellent. So I propose we take tomorrow, Saturday, as a research day, and relay our information back in some way on Sunday."

Hermione nodded, approving the plan, then took her leave back to the office.

* * *

Sunday morning, Hermione took a seat at the bar of the Leaky Cauldron to wait for Harry and Ron. Though she'd had her share of recent lateness, she was usually more punctual than them.

"Long time no see, 'Mione," Neville greeted her cheerfully. "Can I get you anything on the house?'

She smiled in return.

"Just some tea please. Plain. I don't drink anything that tastes good in the morning."

As Neville began to prepare the request, Harry and Ron strode in.

"Morning Hermione, Neville," Harry smiled, taking the seat next to her. Ron took the seat on the other side of Harry, greeted Neville, and gave a nod to Hermione.

Neville handed Hermione her tea and poured two glasses of butterbeer for the newcomers before retreated to the back.

Seeing that they were relatively alone, Harry commenced the meeting.

"So, let's get this started," Harry began. "Ron, would you mind telling us how the magical community outside of the Ministry is handling the situation?"

"Well," Ron paused. "Like myself, I don't think anyone is really clear on what the situation _is_. They know there has been a prison break, and they know that the witch claimed she had powerful allies, and this scares them. It seems to immediately scream 'Dark Lord.' The protective trinkets stands have reopened, and I've seen some sketchy folk reappearing when passing by the entrance to Knockturn Alley."

"I suspected as much," Harry replied thoughtfully to the overview. "The Ministry is scared too, though not as openly about it. The auror's department is very nervous. They're not so much scared of Baba as they are of that golden-haired man though. Frankly, most of the department is scared to death of him. Hermione, I hope your theories about this being an entirely new group of magic users is correct, because if he actually happens to be part of a new order of Death Eaters, we're doomed."

"Well," Hermione interjected, "We'll hopefully have this sorted out by the end of this week. As usual, I've thought about this more than either of you, and I have an idea for where to start. We need to find Uranai Baba. She told me that her only two interests were money and fighting. So, I think we should compile a list of major fighting venues, or places where you can get money easily so that we can find her."

"How about the Triwizard Tournament?" Ron suggested.

"Okay," Hermione's quill scribbled it down on a piece of parchment.

"Las Vegas," came Harry's suggestion.

"Sorry, we're not going there," Hermione rolled her eyes. "How about the Satan Dojo? My muggle neighbors are always carrying on about that place."

"Isn't Mr. Satan the one the muggles believe defeated Cell?"

"That's him," Harry answered. "I don't know how he lives with himself, claiming false credit like that. Everyone here knows that Ministry aurors took care of that monster Cell. I heard he was almost as frightening as Voldemort. Anyway, though, I think my cousin Dudley works out in one of Mr. Satan's UK-branch gyms. Maybe that will help us out."

"Perfect. So let's meet again on Saturday. Really _do _try to think of some more places we could look during the week."

* * *

Voila.


End file.
